The TOP Sales Leader Playbook
Get the Winning Plays of TOP Sales Leaders
Discover how to identify, develop and repeatedly close 5X deals – five times your average contract size – with this essential playbook for TOP sales leaders from Mastermind Sales Strategist, Lisa Magnuson.
Get a Sneak Peak of the First Chapter
Landing Bigger Deals Changes Everything
When one of your sellers lands a big deal, the impact resonates throughout your organization. Other members of your sales team are inspired to new heights. Turnover decreases. The pressure is off and you can stop worrying about your numbers. Adding a big name to your client list makes it easier to land more big deals. You land more add-on business. The positive effect goes on and on.
Every sales organization needs an engine that generates massive deals ─ repeatedly.
The TOP Sales Leader Playbook is your guidebook for creating that sales engine. It contains 16 key plays you need to exponentially grow revenues and drive leadership success. You’ll get valuable insights and practical how-to’s from 16 recognized thought leaders as sideline coach experts for each play. This invaluable reference guide is designed for modern sales leaders who want to win big.
Your Playbook for Landing 5X Deals
To create this big-deal playbook, author Lisa Magnuson conducted more than 40 hours of live, one-on-one interviews with 41 Sales VPs from a variety of industries. She discovered their top priorities, challenges and proficiency levels with all aspects of their complicated jobs. She included it all in this practical playbook, including:
Easy reference plays so every sales leader can create a repeatable big deal engine for their teams
Consistency within the sales leadership team to systematize a large deal culture
A powerful reference source to help sales leaders prioritize critical issues versus day-to-day fires
A template with common language to increase effective communication within the sales organization
Practical how-tos and models that deliver time savings for busy sales leaders
Methods to accelerate new sales leader on-boarding with the 5X deal methodology to identify, develop and close 5X contracts
About the Research
Author Lisa Magnuson interviewed 41 sales executives for this book. Their insights plus her experiences have contributed to a deep understanding of the unique priorities and challenges that sales leaders face, especially when it comes to building an organization that delivers 5X deals year over year. The sales executives represent a diverse group across a broad range of industries.
Job Titles
Gender
71%
Male
29%
Female
Organization Size
Sales Background
Industries
Advertising
Aerospace
Analytics
Apparel
Business Communications
Business Services
Finance/Financial Services
Healthcare
Insurance
IT Services
Legal Software
Manufacturing
Marketing
Outsourced Sales
Professional Services
Security
Software
Technology
How Sales Leadership Teams Use This Playbook
1.
Read through all the content so you know what a valuable resource you now own.
2.
Encourage your sales management team to use their copy as a reference guide, checking the appropriate topic as a just-in-time source of expert information, eliminating the need to re-create the wheel.
3.
Use the book as a resource to on-board new sales managers and other sales leaders.
4.
Share relevant sections with account teams (especially the account team quarterback) who drive truly big deals for your company.
5.
Share relevant sections with your counterparts in other disciplines (such as Marketing, Professional Services, Inside Sales) who serve as extended members of the account team.
6.
Share a copy with the executive team so they can be better equipped to back up your efforts.
Praise for The TOP Sales Leader Playbook
“… cuts through the chaos and clutter of a Sales VP's job to the essence of successful sales team performance.”
Barbara Weaver Smith
Founder & CEO, The Whale Hunters, Inc.
“Lisa’s latest book includes everything that the sales leadership team needs for complex contract success – time after time.”
Alice Heiman
Chief Revenue Officer, Alice Heiman, LLC and Co-Founder, TradeShow Makeover™
"Solid guidance for sales leaders with ambitions to consistently win big deals!"
George Brontén
Founder & CEO, Membrain
“Sales VP’s, managers and directors now have a template for big contract success that transcends country lines and helps all account-based teams win more. Invaluable!”
Zeenath Kuraisha
Founder & CEO Asia Pacific Sales & Marketing Academy
“To win big deals sales leaders need a great team that can execute big plays. This playbook is packed with big plays from a brilliant team led by a great author/coach.”
Steve Hall
Australia’s leading C Level Sales Authority, Managing Director of Executive Sales Coaching Australia
“Lisa has skillfully put together a practical guide for sales leaders paired with powerful input from sixteen sideline experts. Results oriented sales leaders will love this playbook.”
Meridith Elliott Powell
Business Growth Expert & Keynote Speaker
"Concise and incisive, practical and tactical, plays that will get you all the way to the goal line. I highly recommend The TOP Sales Leader Playbook because it's packed with strategies you can use immediately, straight from sales leaders themselves!"
Deb Calvert
President of People First Productivity Solutions and author of DISCOVER Questions® Get You Connected and Stop Selling & Start Leading
“Her hands-on experience as a first and second line leader made her one of the most distinguished sales leaders that I have ever seen lead. Her proven sales methodology will yield a visible, predictable, and repeatable outcome.”
Jay Tyler
CEO, Jay Tyler Consulting
“Both strategic and practical, the information on how to win larger deals is crucial to sales leaders as well as sales reps. Most importantly, it can help put organizations on a solid leadership trajectory. Highly recommended.”
Christopher Ryan
CEO, Fusion Marketing Partners, Author of B2B Revenue Playbook and Winning B2B Marketing
“Truly large contract wins take months or years and victories are only gained through careful planning and attention to strategy details. The TOP Sales Leader Playbook provides the sales leadership team with high impact Plays, how to construct them, deploy them and what to do if the account team gets off track. Incredibly powerful and a must-read for all sales managers, directors and VP’s.”
James Muir
author of The Perfect Close, VP of Sales, ShiftWizard
“Sales organizations in all industries aspire to “close large deals” only to come in second or third in the selection process with little understanding of how or why. The TOP Sales Leader Playbook offers them a ‘fast track’ to what they need – an engine that drives predictable big contracts year in and year out.”
Suzanne Paling
author of The Sales Leader’s Problem Solver and The Accidental Sales Manager. Founder, Sales Management Services
Create your Custom Playbook
Take your team to the next level by creating your custom Sales Leader Playbook. Downloadable templates make it easy for your sales leadership team to build your own unique approach to leadership, methodology, execution and culture for a 5X deal generating sales organization. No need to start from scratch. – Download individual plays or a full playbook of templates. You can even get expert assistance to create your custom playbook for your team.
*Need help customizing your Playbook? Not sure which templates are the best fit?
Sales Leadership Play Templates
- Sales Leadership Assessment
- Program Kick off Communication
- Big Deal Sales Expectations
- Cross Functional Collaboration: Team & Resources Prompts
- Account Team Coaching Questions
- Account Team: Can We Win? Assessment
- Training Reinforcement Guide
- Twelve Months at a Glance Calendar
Sales Methodology Play Templates
- Sales Methodology Assessment
- Advances:
- Scoring opportunities
- Gathering insights
- Assigning team and resources
- Agreeing on team guidelines
- Mapping relationships
- Constructing a pre-strategy SWOT matrix
- Charting strategy
- Designing Win Themes™
- Engaging executives
- Finding expansion opportunities
- Tracking progress
- 5X deal sales process framework
- Competitive strategy checklist
Sales Execution Play Templates
- Sales Execution Assessment
- Pre-call planning worksheet
- Customer meeting agenda
- Successful meeting checklist
- Pre-call planning effectiveness assessment
- Pre-war room checklist
- War room agenda
- Internal 5X business review (IBR) agenda
- Organizational assessment
Sales Culture Play Templates
- Sales Culture Assessment
- Executive outreach checklist
- Customer business review agenda
- Win celebration checklist
- Win/loss customer retrospective interview guide
About the Author
Lisa Magnuson has walked in the shoes of sales leaders. She was an award-winning sales manager and Sales VP including executive positions with several Fortune 50 companies. Top Line Sales, which Lisa founded in 2005, has a proven track record of helping companies overcome the barriers to winning TOP Line Accounts™. Her clients boast of closed contracts totaling over $350 million in new revenue due to Lisa’s “roll up your sleeves” approach to winning big deals.
Lisa is the author of The TOP Seller Advantage: Powerful Strategies to Build Long-Term Executive Relationships. She resides in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her family.
Connect with Lisa at www.toplinesales.com/contact.
